The present invention relates broadly to Christmas lights and, relates more particularly to a an ornament device that houses a string of ornamental lights (or light string) on a retractable winding mechanism configured to unwind to deploy the light string, wind to secure the deployed light string (after use), where the light string has a male electrical connector at one end and a female electrical connector at its other end for powering and concatenating multiple ornament devices/light strings.
Ornamental light strings, e.g., Christmas light strings, come in many shapes and sizes for use both indoors (for example, on an indoor tree) and outside (for example, on a house trim or on branches of a tree). Once removed from packaging after purchased, and deployed, ornamental light strings can be troublesome to wrap up or otherwise arrange for storage and then stored for the string's “next” deployment, typically about one year later. That is, the light string is typically wound in multiple loops as one might wind a common light extension cord. The string of lights also can be wound around an object and stored. But if an ornamental light string is wrapped around an object for storage, there is much space wasted. If they are folded over, or wound in multiple loops, the light strings likely tangle and, therefore, must be untangled.
Ornamental light strings are likely to tangle when wound for storage because unlike a common extension cord, the strings have multiple light elements that extend out from the line of the wire. The extending light elements operate to readily tangle by contact with the wire and prevent the stored light string from being easily redeployed. Put another way, one typically must untangle stored ornamental light strings before redeployment every (the next) year, which can be both challenging and frustrating. For that matter, conventional ornamental light strings, when arranged for storage, typically take large amounts of space for storage.